I Wish You All the Best Paperback – 5 May 2020

I love this book!!

I don’t think I’ve ever read a YA book with a non-binary person as the lead character. So of course when I heard about this debut from Mason Deaver I was like I NEED THIS NOW. I’ve followed Mason for a few years now on twitter so I’ve been excited for this book for a while.Content warnings: misgendering, homophobia, enbyphobia, anxiety, depression, being kicked out of homeI Wish You All The Best follows Ben De Backer after they come out as non-binary to their parents. They have been thrown out of their home and all that’s left for them to do is to phone their estranged sister. She takes them in and Ben has to start at a whole new school, make new friends and find a whole new life.This book is so stunning. It both made me happy and broke my heart. There is no other word for this bar “Groundbreaking”. With so few books out there even featuring non-binary supporting characters, this book from ownvoices author Mason Deaver is incredibly important.Whilst I’ve never been thrown out of the house by my parents for being who I am, there were a lot of moments and struggles Ben went through where I felt I could relate a lot. They struggled a lot with anxiety and depression, which is something I know a lot about . I felt like Deaver covered these topics incredibly well and I loved that they included Ben seeing a therapist. I feel like a lot of YA contemporaries skirt around therapy or just show it in a bad light. There are a lot of good therapists out there and it really can help.Whilst this book was quite a hard read at times, Deaver balanced humour along with the pain and sadness really well. This book feels hopeful. There are of course a lot of times with a lot of melancholy but Deaver does a wonderful job in reminding the reader that things can eventually look up. They also do a fantastic job of finding moments of humour in severe sadness.I loved the different ways that Deaver examined familial relationships through Ben. We see Ben’s opinion of their parents and their sister change through the process of coming out. They feel like Hannah left them to be stuck with their parents, and whilst dealing with that whilst living with Hannah they realise that it wasn’t the situation they originally thought.Nathan is a sweet cinnamon roll and I absolutely love him. He takes everything in stride and is just such a positive force in Ben’s life. I personally would like to have seen a little more of Nathan and Ben’s relationship but this is for my romance loving heart more than anything.I honestly adored this book and I am so excited for whatever Mason Deaver comes out with next.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found the writing to be excellent, this is the authors first novel but they did a great job in getting me to feel what Ben was feeling which I think is always a sign of a good author. Whilst Ben is struggling with anxiety attacks I found myself feeling helpless along side them. Don’t worry, whilst this book does deal with heavy topics there’s also a lot of beautiful moments and I think Mason did a fantastic job in making this book hit just the right tone. I loved the romance here, it’s quite clear early on that there is a mutual attraction between Nathan and Ben but these two take a while to realise it for themselves and I just loved watching them uncover their feelings. My only negative was that I would’ve liked more about the sibling relationship between Hannah and Ben. They have a very interesting dynamic to me, in them having not seen each other for so long and now Hannah is Ben’s guardian, that I would’ve liked to get more on that.Overall, this was a fantastic read and i’m very happy that I did read it. This was the first book I ever read with a nonbinary MC and I do actually feel like I learnt a lot from it, books have so much power and influence that I cannot stress enough how important it is to get own voices representation in them. I think this was an incredibly important book and I hope i’ll be seeing more nonbinary representation in the future.

!spoilers!I relate to Ben not coming out to their school when they transferred there even though they knew they were non-binary. I liked that Nathan misgendered Ben because it's so realistic! Some people might have just tried to avoid using pronouns if the main character is closeted but I liked that the main character could feel that sting of being misgendered (i know the pain 😫).The diversity in this book is amazing.It shows a lot of struggles teenagers have and I can definitely relate to, such as peer pressure and mental health issues, fear of coming out.Hannah reminds me a bit about my sister, they act similarly and reacted similarly when I came out. overall loved the book.

I have been following Mason Deaver on Twitter for a long time, after seeing them tweet about writing a non-binary love story. Every excerpt or mention made me even more excited for I Wish You All the Best, their debut novel.⁠⁠When Ben comes out as non-binary to their parents, it goes as horribly wrong as a coming out possibly can, leaving them standing at a public phone calling their sister to come get them. A new life with their sister, a new school, the opportunity to live as their authentic self, and a therapist to help them with their out of control anxiety.⁠⁠And then there's Nathan, who takes Ben under his wing. Is Nathan just a friend, or could there be more?⁠⁠This is both a love story, and a story of coming out. I Wish You All the Best has some beautiful moments of levity and romance, but also dark honesty around the difficulty of growing up with parents who refuse to accept who their child is. ⁠

This book is such a great book for all to read. From the moment I started I could not put this book down. It is both educational and heart warming. All the characters play an important part in the narration of the story. It has moments that reflected my youth and I think it is so beautifully written by an amazing author. If you like this book I would also suggest Alex In Wonderland by Simon James Green.

I can never read for a long amount of time because I get distracted but I couldn’t put this book down!!! My favourite book by far!!

Overall I think this is a great YA book for anyone to read, as it not only deals with someone dealing with the fallout from a family that does not support them due to them being who they are, but touches on dealing with anxiety and the massive upheaval changing school that follows. Great read, really well written, highly recommend.